How to set up your PCEHR online

Instructions on how to register for a PCEHR online have been added to the australia.gov.au website.

As outlined in Pulse+IT last week, the first step is to create an australia.gov.au account, or if you already have one, log in to that account.

Step two is to click on the link to the National eHealth Record System (NEHRS). To do this, you must verify your identity, as australia.gov.au account logins are randomly generated. (If you forget your australia.gov.au login, you must set up a new account.)

There are three ways to verify your identity. The first is to enter an Identify Verification Code, which is provided to people who have registered for the PCEHR in person or by telephone.

Another option is to share your Medicare Online identity with the NEHRS. If you already have a Medicare Online account, this is enough to verify your identity. If you do not, sign up at Medicare Online and wait to receive a password in the post to activate your account.

You can also find out what your Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) is through Medicare Online.

The third – and most cumbersome – option is to follow the series of prompts asking you questions about your most recent Medicare activity. Several Pulse+IT readers have mentioned this can be a difficult step and takes more than 15 minutes, so the best advice is to use option one or two.

Once you have verified your identity, you will be invited to create your PCEHR at ehealth.gov.au. You can then continue to access your PCEHR through australia.gov.au.

For those who have encountered difficulties filling out the security questions at australia.gov.au, or filling out the Medicare identity verification questions in option three, australia.gov.au suggests this might be due to leading and trailing spaces at the start or end of a sentence.

It suggests you do not copy and paste your answers, and to check that each question starts and ends with a regular text character.